Although you know me well, you may not recognize me sometimes when you see me. Well, at least you act like you don’t.

You don’t even acknowledge me when you become one with me yet so many people of color long for you to see me, but my disguises are so well thought out. People of color point you out and shout my name and you say they’re playing the race card.

I am the part of you that turns your head when Black men and women are gunned down by officers unjustly, yet legally. I am the part of you that says nothing when a verdict of “not guilty” comes down for an Officer that murdered a person of color. That’s who I am.

I am the one who will jump in front of you and tell you to go protest at a women’s march, even though you haven’t protested or spoken out against the injustices that happened to Trayvon Martin, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Eric Garner and so many others. I tell you where to put your focus and you do it every time.

I am the political parties that will vet, recruit, run and coronate candidates so that they may spend time on pushing any and every type of bill through Congress with the exception of anything that has to do with the Black Lives Matter movement or justice for people of color. I disguise legislation and make it look like it’s a war between the rich and the poor when I know better.

Like a thief in the night, I steal that gut feeling from you that you get when you know your Black and Brown brothers and sisters cannot fight me alone.

I trick you into thinking Black law enforcement leaders and Black and Brown legislators can help stop the rage of white America but to tell you the truth, only a collective fight for changed laws will stop the hate that take and consume the lives of Black and Brown people in this country. Keep that between us for if they knew changed laws would eradicate me, they’d win.

I don’t want you to know this, but, I can even get Black and Brown people to think if they can only get white people to love or like them, that they’d be able to overcome racism. Truth is, it doesn’t matter if white people like, love or hate Black and Brown people because I can still beat the system. I can manipulate the mind to have someone kill a person of color and law will always be on my side if I can convince jurors to look closely at the law of these United States. See, in some places of the world, I don’t have as much power. Yet, in America, I am everything.

On the other hand, the two Black people who saved the lives of the all white legislators playing baseball last week threw me for quite a loop. I was hoping they would allow my colleagues, Death and Destruction, to creep in so that we could once again penetrate the thought process of so many.

Instead, they didn’t. They stepped in and helped. Since I couldn’t work my magic on them, I worked my magic on the 12 jurors in the Philando Castile case the same week and made sure that cop was acquitted.
I hate to admit it but I can’t get into the minds and hearts of every man and woman, but I can deter most. The white men in Portand, Oregon also shook me to my core when they stood up for a Muslim woman and a Black woman as I used another white man to hurl insults their way. I was in all my glory and here comes this Republican and Bernie Sanders supporter to their rescue. I was floored. Everyone who attacked me were white. I was stunned at their willingness to stand up to me and put their lives on the line without a moments notice. In London this week, a white man drove a van through a crowd of Muslim worshippers outside of a Mosque, killing at least one person. I’m growing fast abroad, too.

With the laws in America, I don’t even have to work hard because the Constitution defends me. With all the power it has, more than anything, I, racism, am protected under the law. I’m free to be me and there’s nothing you can do about it. Truth is, I’m keeping the lawmakers busy with the Russians so I’ll be here longer than you can ever imagine.

I’m the reason churches separate like oil and water each Sunday and I’ll drive a political wedge through the pulpit like a stake being driven through a vampire’s heart. I can do all this, even to the most liberal of people, because you don’t see me. You don’t see that I am fixated on you.

You deny me all to often declaring, “I’m no racist,” when in fact, you are so tangled with me, you keep people that look like you closest to you.

When you allow your human brethren to stand alone, you make my job so much easier and I’m forever grateful to you for that.

As I embark on another week, I want you to say who I am. I am racism. You and I are closer than you think. We’re more than friends. I’m a part of your mindset. You’d have to work far too hard each day to block me from taking over your mentality and you, white America, you just don’t have the strength to do that. So, instead of turning the other cheek, when you see or feel me, act like you know me. Even though you won’t be around, I’ll be here to introduce myself to your grandchildren and their children. I’ll get to your children while they are young through your unconscious biases.

I’m everywhere you don’t expect. I infiltrate places like the Democratic Party, those so-called liberal thinkers, to a point where they’ve made Black women the firewall which protects a racial agenda. Even the Florida Democratic Chair, Steven Bittel let out racially charged rhetoric this past weekend at a conference in South Florida saying, Black legislators just don’t get it and compared Black men elected by their communities to whiney Black babies. I could only let out a diabolical laugh when I heard the news and I continued to go about my cause.

There’s no doubt, I’m a villain and no matter what I can’t be killed. I’ve worked with the greatest of all time, like Hitler, Trump and David Duke and I realize that some peoples’ hearts will cut them short of going through with the true racist agenda I have plotted; people like those Portland men who will forever be martyred now, disgusts me. They likely didn’t have a racist bone in their bodies which means I need to get back on my job of creating that great racial divide that I’ve always put in the minds of even the most honorable people.

A Congressman who pledged to dismantle Obamacare was shot early this morning in Alexandria, VA at a baseball game.

Rep. Scalise, who is also the Republican House Whip, is currently in surgery.

Several others were also shot at the game and their status is unknown at this time.

An eyewitness said, “An African American gentleman was shot in the leg,” yet he still took the shooter down.

Congressman Scalise’s website says he supports a full repeal of the “unconstitutional job-killing” Obamacare law.

Scalise also supports legislation that focuses on reducing frivolous lawsuits against physicians according to the house.Gov website.

Scalise is expected to survive the shooting and make a full recovery according to CNN reports.

Currently, Congress receives a health care package that will cover the atrocities of today’s shooting leaving the Congressman with little or no out of pocket expenses.

Unfortunately, most Americans do not have access to quality health care and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act or as it’s commonly called, “Obamacare,” this leaves more Americans in limbo when it comes to the healthcare of the citizens of the United States.

Nancy Pelosi made a statement a while back which led me to ‘assume,’ although I know, the party is looking for moderate conservatives, who are fed up with Trump and the Tea Party, to become part of the Democratic Party. Democrats are going as far as vetting, preparing, supporting and running candidates who are moderate conservatives.

A recent courting and public support of Mitt Romney, a Republican, supports this new chapter within the Democratic Party.

This is all because they refuse to support Progressive values and quite frankly, they are still salty with Senator Bernie Sanders for running a wildly successful campaign against Hillary Clinton and rallying people around the issues that matter to the majority of Americans. The fact that they are unwilling to truly help the people who need the most help says so much.

The Democratic Party appears unhappy with people rallying around the issues and that’s a major clue they are using us as a base they don’t intend to serve. Most of us are going along for the ride without truly knowing where we’re headed.

Let’s face it, it’s tough for poor and middle-class people to keep up on all the politics going on in America. We are working harder than anyone else, raising children, taking care of our parents and trying to keep up with our own health, well-being and daily lives. If you ask most people in the inner city neighborhoods what their primary concern is, it’s not Russian intelligence interfering in our elections.

The problems we are facing largely stem from the inaction of our political party and our Black organizations charged with being our voice.

For Democrat leaders to make such a bold move, some would think, Progressives and “Berniecrats” must be calling for some sort of radical ideals. These so-called left wing radicals prompted a mass exit, after the primary election last year. Many Progressives and unsatisfied Democrats moved away from the party after seeing how the party neglected the voices and the issues of the poor and middle-class people.

If fighting for cheaper prescription drug prices, better and affordable health care, taking a position and action on Black Lives Matter by writing bills to help protect us is too radical a position to take, then we’ve been misled.

It is by no means, too much to ask for basic human rights. Clean water is not a radical ideology. It’s a basic human right. It’s right and it’s the duty of the party and those who are groupies of the party, to act accordingly. Where were the Democrats on the poisoning of the water in Flint, Michigan before and after this tragedy? Where are they on changing the law to fit Black Lives Matter? How are they going to fight and assure people the Sabal Trail Pipeline will not poison our water supply and cause even more sinkholes?

We, black folk and we women, have been the firewall of the Democratic Party for years and enough is enough.
Among other things, we asked for the basic human necessities and the Democratic Party went out and backed Republican Mitt Romney in an effort court a conservative base.
In addition, the party doesn’t get to act like Black Lives Matter means less than marriage equality. That’s not ok. If the cause is great for someone, it should matter to all of us. These issues should be equally important in our party and we should act accordingly. The party doesn’t get to tell it’s base and firewall, it’s ride or die group of people, that mass incarceration or convicting Black men for non-violent crimes, are free labor and will significantly lower the labor pool, as Kamala Harris’ team so boldly spelled out in court.

Rhetta Peoples is the CEO of a thriving boutique advertising, grassroots marketing and crisis public relations firm based in Orlando. She is also a journalist for the Black Press, a political expert, a Mom, a wife and a black woman meeting success head-on in Orlando.

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Rhetta Peoples is the CEO of a thriving boutique advertising, grassroots marketing and crisis public relations firm based in Orlando. She is also a journalist for the Black Press, a political expert, a Mom, a wife and a black woman meeting success head-on in Orlando.